Tag Archives: kitchen

My latest contribution to Huffington Post is up. It describes five ways for you to put aside your excuses to get yourself cooking. I admit, sometimes it is really, really hard to get cooking. In my opinion, getting started is often the hardest part… Although there are other steps along the way where I often get derailed.

Okay everyone, I just have to share my latest exciting discovery: an electric tortilla press!

Several months ago I had an allergic reaction that was mild but still scary to encounter, and it was due to cross-contamination. I found that my usual burrito/tortilla shells were now situated in the grocery store next to the brand new jalapeno shells, and I can only imagine that my new reaction might have been due to the shared equipment. As a result, I started making my own tortillas.

I did not exactly have the knack for it. I was covered in flour and perspiring a little from rolling out each tortilla. And frustrated, with the delicate balance between undercooked and smoking tortillas. After a few scorched attempts, I managed to get the process figured out, but even so it involved making the dough, rolling it out, carefully frying each one for the precise amount of time with a precise amount of oil on the stove… and this all before even making the stuffings for the burrito! Since these burritos are a staple for travel and healthy lunches for me, I needed another solution.

And thanks to a little online searching and a wonderful birthday gift, the solution came my way. The other night, I tried the electric tortilla press for the first time. It was amazing. Mix the dough: check. Knead it a little and divide into equal, smaller balls of dough: check. Place the dough in the center of the tortilla press and close the top to squish it out: check. Hold it down until the escaping steam makes a funny-sounding squeal: check. Raise the top lid to find a perfectly pressed tortilla ready to be filled with deliciousness: CHECK.

So, I found instructions on Pinterest for no-recipe biscuits, and felt inspired (thank you, Posie Harwood – http://food52.com/blog/10148-how-to-make-yogurt-biscuits-without-a-recipe). It involves dumping unmeasured amounts of flour, baking powder and glops of yogurt in a bowl and mixing them together, and then adding whatever else you like – I love that! It also had rolling and cutting biscuits, which seemed to be more work than I was interested in. So instead, I just dolloped the biscuits onto the baking pan to see how they’d go. They are certainly not picture-perfect-Martha-Stewart biscuits, but I’m not exactly a picture-perfect-Martha-Stewart chef, so it all works out okay in the end.

Here is my adaptation of the recipe, in two versions – Maple-Bacon and Feta-Green Onion:

In a big bowl… Start with as much flour as you would like biscuits. Take your baking powder and pour in a lil’ shake of it, and then take your salt and pepper shaker and give two shakes of salt. Mix up these ingredients and wiggle a little while you do. (You don’t actually have to wiggle, it just makes this more fun).

Now, take a big thing of yogurt – I like vanilla, even for savory biscuits – and let a good sized glop or two fall in. Mix this stuff up and add some milk too, until it is thick and gloppy but not quite runny like pancake mix (if this happens, add more flour). See the above Food52 website for pictures of what the consistency should look like.

For MAPLE-BACON (aka. Breakfast-in-a-Biscuit):

-Cook up some bacon beforehand. You can use leftovers from brunch, or if you haven’t had brunch today, bake it in the oven. If you have extra bacon grease – pour a little in to your biscuit mixture to add flavor.

-Add a healthy pour of maple syrup.

-Crumble up bacon into little bits – more than you think you’d need.

-Mix it all together!

For FETA-GREEN ONION:

-Pour in as much feta as you’d like. Feta is great because as it cooks in the biscuits, it creates little air pockets that are delicious when you eat them!

-Add chopped little green onions.

-Add a handful of cheddar cheese, too, if you’d like.

-Add in a little oregano, garlic powder and fresh basil.

-Mix mix mix.

Then, drop the mixture onto baking pans or cookie sheets – I use two spoons and drop as much mixture as I would cookie dough. Bake at 400 for 10-12 minutes.

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